News Center-Experts

You are here

Benoy Jacob

Associate Professor

Program Coordinator, Urban Leadership Program

Expertise: Municipal government

About

Benoy Jacob is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy and Leadership in the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs. Benoy’s research focuses on the growth and governance of cities; in particular, issues of public finance, state and local relationships, and social diversity and equity. Currently, Benoy is working on a project exploring the role of social cohesion in city growth and governance. His work has been featured in Urban Affairs Review, the National Tax Journal, and Public Administration Review. Benoy also serves on the Executive Committee for ASPA’s Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management, and the Executive Committee for the National Certified Public Management Association.

Benoy’s work has been supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and ASPA’s Center for Accountability and Performance.

Benoy earned his PhD in Public Administration in 2008 from the University of Illinois – Chicago. While completing his PhD, he worked as a Summer Associate at RAND and was also awarded a Lincoln Institute of Land Policy dissertation fellowship. Benoy has also worked as a land-use planner for Rockland County, New York, and as a development consultant for Ferrandino & Associates, a small consulting firm in the New York Metropolitan Area.

Before joining UNLV in the fall 2016, Benoy Jacob served as an assistant professor at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver where he was also the Director of the Local Government Center at the University of Colorado, and their Certified Public Management Program. Prior to that Benoy was an assistant professor at the School of Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate University.

Benoy's work has been featured in several academic journals and he serves on the editorial board of the Urban Affairs Review.

Benoy Jacob In The News

Running a city is a tall order. The governments of large cities, especially, can be more complex and difficult to manage than entire countries. In addition to representing the residents they serve, local leaders must balance the public’s diverse interests with the city’s limited resources. Consequently, not everyone’s needs can or will be met. Leaders must carefully consider which services are most essential, which agencies’ budgets to cut or boost, whether and how high to raise taxes, among other important decisions that affect the daily lives of city dwellers.

Not so long ago, Benoy Jacob said, city and county leaders were seen as the worker bees of government, overseeing nuts-and-bolts tasks such as filling potholes and replacing burned-out bulbs in streetlights, while state and federal elected officials tackled big problems.